enabled all bluetooth drivers in the kernel, but I did not manually specify a module
do I need to do that in /etc/conf.d/modules?

If you specified the driver as a module in your kernel config, you need to enter it in /etc/conf.d/modules. If you've already compiled the kernel with the bluetooth driver as a module and you've already rebooted with the new kernel but did not put the module in /etc/conf.d/modules, go ahead and put the module in /etc/conf.d/modules so it gets reload on future boots and run modprobe (module_name).

figures, I believe it's the hci module, not sure.
anyway, I will try adding it soon.
Sorry about the noob mistake, but really am just learning.
I did do menu-config and enabled all the bluetooth drivers, but did not specify one in modules so
will do... or is there a difference between a driver and a module?

any help?
I have rfcomm and bluetooth modules being loaded.
I tried 2 different drivers, but didn't seem to get one that worked.
When I don't specify a driver, lsub gives me the name of the device as
cambridgr radio bluetooth when I load a specific driver the name changes.

blueman started working this morning when I'm not logged in as root, but crashed pretty quickly.
appears that I have a working bluetooth connection now, but still a little buggy.

Something told me to try a 2.6 kernel. I emerged and compiled sys-kernel/gentoo-sources:2.6.32-r29, reboot, and all works fine !

I don't know whether you automatically receive a mail for this reply, but it is close to a solution. You'll need to find the latest version that worked and the fist version for which it breaks, this information will give us a small set of code changes to look at to discover if we can see an obvious difference pointing. Please provide these two versions (latest working, first broken) in https://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=411407 if you manage to obtain them. A minimal config, optimized build settings and trying to divide the versions to try in pairs (1 works --> 4 works --> 8 broken --> 6 broken --> 5 works --> 5 latest working and 6 first broken) can help speed up the process.